Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Alberta (& Saskatchewan) Tar Sands

The process of removing the tar from the sand involves incredible amounts of energy from clean-burning natural gas (with nuclear proposed along side), tremendous capital costs during build up, incredibly high petroleum prices to protect investments, and the largest single industrial contribution to climate change in North America. Production also involves the waste of fresh water from nearby lakes, rivers and aquifers that have already created toxic tailing ponds visible from outer space. None of the land strip mined has yet to be certified as reclaimed. It takes 4 tonnes of soil to produce one barrel of oil. The tar sands are producing over 1.2 million barrels of oil a day on average. The oil companies, Canada and the United States governments are proposing to escalate production to 5 million barrels, almost all destined for American markets-- and lower environmental standards while doing so. They also would need to violate the national and human rights of many indigenous nations who are rightly concerned about many dire social, environmental and economic repercussions on their communities.

To get the needed energy supplies, diluent for the bitumen and diverted freshwater to produce and then to transport the flowing heavy bitumen for refining would require massive new infrastructure and pipeline building from three different time zones in the Arctic, across British Columbia and through Alberta in a criss-cross pattern, into pipelines to such destinations as California, China, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ontario, Illinois, Wisconsin and Texas. This entire project is now estimated at over $170 billion dollars. And after the whole process described so far, only then will all this dirty petroleum get burned and expel greenhouse gasses into the air causing further climate change.

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Alberta Tar Sands is a category limited to the location and production of tar sand bitumen, an area the size of the state of Florida in northern Alberta province. The giant processing plants near Fort McMurray where the land itself is strip mined as well as the primarily "in situ" in-ground steam separation/production and extraction plants in the Peace and Cold Lake Regions, all in Alberta, are the "Ground Zero" of the single largest industrial gigaproject ever proposed in human history. The process of removing the tar from the sand involves incredible amounts of energy from clean-burning natural gas (with nuclear proposed along side), tremendous capital costs during build up, incredibly high petroleum prices to protect investments, and the largest single industrial contribution to climate change in North America. Production also involves the waste of fresh water from nearby lakes, rivers and aquifers that have already created toxic tailing ponds visible from outer space. None of the land strip mined has yet to be certified as reclaimed. It takes 4 tonnes of soil to produce one barrel of oil. The tar sands are producing over 1.2 million barrels of oil a day on average. The oil companies, Canada and the United States governments are proposing to escalate production to 5 million barrels, almost all destined for American markets-- and lower environmental standards while doing so. They also would need to violate the national and human rights of many indigenous nations who are rightly concerned about many dire social, environmental and economic repercussions on their communities. To get the needed energy supplies, diluent for the bitumen and diverted freshwater to produce and then to transport the flowing heavy bitumen for refining would require massive new infrastructure and pipeline building from three different time zones in the Arctic, across British Columbia and through Alberta in a criss-cross pattern, into pipelines to such destinations as California, China, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ontario, Illinois, Wisconsin and Texas. This entire project is now estimated at over $170 billion dollars. And after the whole process described so far, only then will all this dirty petroleum get burned and expel greenhouse gasses into the air causing further climate change.

Land Owners vs. Seismic Operations (Marie Lake)

If people are to coordinate a possible fight back against the tar sands, there needs to be voices from all sectors. This is not an Albertan fight alone, and pipelines will also be running over the landowners of farms through Saskatchewan, Manitoba and if Enbridge has their way, British Columbia.

Orin Hatch: Utah should "recover" Oil Shale and Tar Sands

Oil Shale, burning much like coal after a more -involved extraction process than "regular" tar sands, is perhaps the energy equivalent of a scoundrels refuge. If we see the energy economy go to this form of extraction without coming up with a plan for a non-oil existence, then we may as well give up on most everything save the immediate future, for it will be the final surrender to climate change and the destruction of the liveable biosphere, for the purpose of fuelling a riding lawn mower...

--M

Hatch urges use of Utah's tar sands and oil shale

Company plans more than 100 In-Situ Plants

Company plans more than 100 oilsands wells
Japan Canada wants to eventually produce 35,000 barrels per day

Ashok Dutta, CanWest News Service
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=5346caff-...
Published: Friday, April 13, 2007

CALGARY -- Japan Canada Oil Sands Ltd. (Jacos) is pressing ahead with a three-year program to drill more than 100 delineation wells and shoot over 65 square kilometres of new 3-D seismic data at its lease in Athabasca's oilsands.

American Corporations Have and Will Set Pace of Development: Analyst

Companies, not governments, control energy future: analyst

By RENATO GANDIA
Today staff
Friday April 13, 2007
http://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/Local%20News/300358.html

The American addiction to oil is fuelling the sizzling oilsands development in Fort McMurray, said a policy analyst from the United States slated to come here Monday.

The Gigaproject Imports People: 24 Month "Guest Labourers" from China in the Tarsands

The response to this importation of people, to be exploited vastly and then dumped on transport back to their original nation-state, has often been put in terms of "Canada first" language, the language of making sure "Canadian jobs are protected" without the obvious fact that there simply is not enough labour already. The problem here is not a nationalist one, but a disposable people attitude being put forth here.

Water Wasted in Vast Amounts; Albertan Government Placates with Panel

The schemes around water need a scrutiny that does not trust in panels. With the slow-privatization of water underway with the selling of "water access rights" to farmers in southern Alberta, soon there will be a situation where perhaps GATT could kick in, and no purchaser can be discriminated against. In other words, on the current trends pathway we are headed to making it illegal to regulate how much water gets wasted.

Tar Sands Open Front in northern Saskatchewan

This story, a small community of desperately poor people who at first will welcome tar sand extraction as a possible panacea against the ravages of historical colonialism and modern poverty, is not a new one. The location is, however, and it signifies a new escalation in tarsand production. It is interesting noting their concerns about capacity in pipes that already exist in Alberta. The possibility of building the infrastructure in Saskatchewan will add another massive dimension to what is already the largest such project in the history of the Earth.

Wildcat growth in oil patch begins to trouble Albertans

Wildcat growth in oil patch begins to trouble Albertans
Review finds many want the pace slowed
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070411.RALBERTANS11/T...
DAVID EBNER

CALGARY -- The oil sands boom that's brought billions of dollars to Alberta has also brought anxiety to a significant number of citizens, some of whom are questioning the rapid pace of development as the provincial government nears the end of a long oil sands review.

Too Many Workers, No Housing, New Campgrounds Banned: Welcome to Fort McMurray

No new campgrounds in McMurray, council rules

By LARISSA LIEPINS
Today staff
http://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/Local%20News/300068.html
Thursday April 12, 2007
Any future campgrounds in Wood Buffalo must be located outside the urban area, and they must “allow for year-round operation.”
Regional council made the decision Tuesday following a heated debate over whether the move will attract even more transient workers to the boomtown.

Consultations a Scam: "Don't ask Questions If you Don't Want Answers"

DON'T ASK QUESTIONS IF YOU DON'T WANT ANSWERS
http://www.vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=6165
RICARDO ACUNA / ualberta.ca/parkland

If you don’t want to hear the answer, then you shouldn’t ask the question. Likewise, if you are already convinced you have the solution, and nothing will change your mind, then don’t ask for advice and input.

Of course, in Alberta during the Klein years, we became used to a slight variation on the above tenets—asking the right very narrow and carefully designed questions will ensure you get only the answers you want no matter whom you ask.